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Published August 10, 2003
By Tanya Batson-Savage
A
untie Roachie art mussi full
till it bus las’Wednesday night, wen
likkle mos’ all a Jamaican come out
fi sey howdy and tenky to Miss Lou a Eman-
cipation Park inna New Kingston. Since De
Hanarebel Dackta Louise
Bennett-Coverley lick de Norman Manley In-
ternational Hairport las’ week, Jumaica don’t
give har a fighting chance; dem jus a fling
dung di love, wedda she ready ar not.
Wan afta anadda, she haffi go dis, dat or
tarra wat cermany, an’ everybady wan’ ear a
likkle boonoonoonous talk. Everybody wan’
dem piece, true sey a so long since she for-
wud back a yard, no since she lef go Canada
inna ’87.
So, on Independence Day, 2003, Jamai-
cans from all walks of life, young old and
some who caan mek up them mind yet,
poured into Emancipation Park, whether to
take a prips at the esteemed lady or simply
to part-take in the festivities. Neither Asy-
lum nor Monday morning has produced the
kind of traffic that crawled along Knutsford
Boulevard on Wednesday evening at 7:00
p.m. Everybody and their best friend wanted
to make it to the park.
Screens were stationed all around the
grounds to make sure that everybody could
see, even if they couldn’t be near the stage.
Unfortunatley the microphone set-up wasn’t
as good, but at least people could see from
all around the of the park and even in the
middle.
Of course with that kind of crowd, enough
seats were not there for everybody to get a
kotch. And of course, with all the lush grass
on the lawn that wasn’t a problem. People
neva fraid to simply grab a piece of the
ground and sit on that. As soon as dem sit
down, dem tek out all that they brought to
eat, because wha’ de pint a wan show wid-
douten likkle bikkle.
Mervyn Morris (he was the one who
help a lot of people see that Miss Lou can be
studied in school with his essay On Reading
Louise Bennett Seriously) read a wonder-
ful citation to Miss Lou. The citation full up
of nuff, big, sweet wud bout why she was a
revolutionary and how she ’studied, shared
and illuminated the heart of the Jamaican
people’.
’She has helped us to realise that we likkle
but we tallaway,’ the citation said and Profes-
sor Morriss read it sweet-sweet.
Den Lawks, Miss Lou was so moved she
could not even talk. ’I mus say suppen,’ she
said when they gave her the microphone.
’When you see I can’t talk you mus’ know,’
she said. And everybody seemed to know.
Har heart must have been well full and her
speech said as much.
Along with all the big people speechify-
ing and saying how much Miss Lou has done
and dubbing her the ’mother’ of Jamaican
culture, the evening had quite a mix of people
performing. Faith D’Aguillar, one woman
who sound like the dead stamp of Miss Lou,
was one of them. Fitz Weir, Easton Lee and
Charles
Hyatt also took a walk down memory
lane. Hyatt suggested that Miss Lou could be
made a National Heroine, to ease off some of
the pressure from Nanny.
Oliver Samuels also took a walk down
memory lane, but he did not go too far down
the road as he decided to bring Miss Lou up
to date on what was going on in Jamaica now.
He came to the stage with one big greeting an
give out: ’Yuh brute yuh! Yuh tink I wouldn’t
fin’ yuh? Yuh nuh easy y’know Louise. Yuh
nuh
likkle, but yuh tallawah!’
Of course, every body laugh, because is
long time since Miss Lou was likkle - but she
well tallawah. She tallawah cyaa done. Of
course, with how Oliver Samuels very jokify,
him start mek fun of the war between Cable
and Wireless and Digicel, talking bout ’me a
di owna fi di yard’. It get really funny when
he started in on the Privy Council issue.
According to his dictionary, privy means
latrine. ’All dem a galang bout Privy Council,
a tilet so much people waah go?’ he asked. Of
course, everybody laugh. Samuels also made
it a point to argue that if the statues wanted to
emancipate their minds itally, then they had
the freedom to do so.
The bringer of the fresh vegetables, Tony
Rebel, did not quite agree with the statues
being ital. After having everybody singing
along with his song, which used We Love
You Miss Lou as the chorus, he ended his
piece with the argument that they should take
down the naked people and put up one of
Miss Lou instead. This call had the audience
cheering wildly.
Tony Rebel was not the only deejay to
make the programme, as the beenie doctor
himself also had his four minutes. Beenie
Man’s performance, which was not another
case of ’hey green arm ova desso...’, went
over very well with the audience. He started
off with the first verse of Redemption Song
before going on to give his own version of
thanks and praises in honour of Miss Lou.
Dub Poet Yassus Afari also took his time
at the microphone. The poet called Miss Lou
and international ’shero’ and told her that her
real place was in King’s House. ’Ah you mek
di people dem ’ave so much diabetes,’ he said
addressing Miss Lou directly, ’caah yuh too
sweet.’
Joan Andrea Hutchinson also brought her
poetic skills to the evening. She performed
a poem which spoke about the trials of Miss
Lou in the efforts of those who wanted to kill
off Jamaican Creole because it is just ’bad
talking’.
The evening clearly showed Miss Lou that
we were not skylarking in her absence. Spirit
of 8 gave a great rendition of her contribution
to folk song history, including the perpetually
calming Evening Time.
There were also performances of Qua-
drille, folk songs, ring games and dances.
Of course, the highlight of the performances
was when young Jade Harris performed an
excerpt of Miss Lou’s Cuss Cuss. The little
bump of womanhood, a student of Gem Glow
Kindergarten, warmed everybody’s heart with
her performance.
Sandra Brooks, Fab 5, Abijah, Stefan
Penincillin and Leroy Sibbles also performed.
When everything was done and Miss Lou
was being taken out on a little golf cart
everybody tried to get in a one look - but not
everybody was lucky.
Disappointed, one young woman kissed
her teeth and turned away saying: ’Cho!
Mi nat even get fi see ar!’
Whether or not everybody got to see her
live and in living colour the evening was
a good show of Jamaica’s culture to one
of its staunchest supporters. It was a long
time since Jamaica had seen har, and we all
wanted to show love.
Even if it tired ar out. Is a good ting she
tallawah, even at 83.
So mi get it, so mi give it.
Howdy and tenk
yu, Miss Lou